Just got back in the house from some walkies around the block a few times with some bats fluttering around overhead. Heard an owl screeching so stopped to see if GROG could spot it in the tree. It was dark, but the tree was silhouetted against the sky. As GROG stood there in front of a neighbor's house trying to spot the owl, a dark animal goes scurrying across the driveway about 20 feet away. At first GROG thought it was a black cat, but when it turned sideways GROG could clearly see that it was a skunk. Thankfully it was scurrying AWAY from GROG, but still GROG decided it was time to move on and head home.

There is a sea turtle rescue place close to my house that I take my girls to a lot. They have a fund-raising program that allows the general public to come and see up close the nesting and release of sea turtles. In June, we did got to see the turtles laying eggs on the beach. Since we did that program we were eligible to return for the bay turtle release. The baby turtles are collected from nests that have hatched. Once nest hatches, the researchers go in and excavate the nest to collect info on hatch ratios... There are usually some hatchlings that can not make it out of the nest. In nature these babies are doomed. The researchers collect these stragglers and release them later on the same beach at night. There are 2 species that we got release.

First are loggerheads. The red light helps us to see but does not disturb the turtles.

a coon jus like that one walked right up to my brother-in-laws back screen door and sat there staring at me. I was screaming like a little school girl. Their cat was growling at it. flea-bitten varmint tryin to get to the cat food.

Tarzan, when GROG first bought GROG house they laid some cement and you have to water it every night for a week. One night GROG was out watering the cement,and when GROG turn around there was a raccoon just a couple of feet scurrying away from GROG. GROG assume it had come up to drink some water right behind GROG.

AlohaStation - cute turtles, bet your daughters loved that. The spiders are not so cute
UngaBunga - that's just wrong!
GROG - generally you water grass, not concrete. Did the concrete contractor tell you to do that? Bet he got a good laugh out of that. Do you want to go snipe hunting during Oasis? There is some nice snipe hunting on the banks of the San Diego River behind Hotel Circle. Bring a burlap bag.

Saw this pack of four wild Chihuahuas over by the railroad tracks today. Many people don't know it but Chihuahuas are native to Costa Rica and first came into this country in the 20s hiding in bunches of imported bananas before the Dept. of Agriculture started mandatory fumigation.
_________________May we all get to have a chance to ride the fast one
Walk away wiser when we crashed one
Keep hoping that the best one is the last one

On the way to the beach to release the baby sea turles, the girl in charge hit a big racoon. Went under her car but was missed by the entire caravan of people behind the lead car. When we got to the beach I asked the girl if that was part of her plan to eliminate threats to the baby sea turtles. She was not amused and felt really bad!

Note to self: when selecting logs to carve, take notice of any bug holes...

If there are large holes in the log more than likely there is something large that made the hole! This came crawling out of one of these holes!! And he wasn't alone.

This came crawling out of WillCarves' large tang the other day. Its maybe 2" long and did not come out alone. My wife would lose her sh*t if she saw something like that inside the house. She freaks out over little spiders, imagining her reaction to this is quite entertaining.

Did a little wildlife rescue of my own this week. Had a Black-necked Stilt (Himantopus mexicanus) with a broken wing trapped in the concrete ditch in front of my house. It had some water (not shown in the pic) but no shade from the scorching desert sun, no obvious food source, and nowhere to go when that ditch is full of water every week. I caught it and put it in the dirt ditch nearby where it has food, water, and shade. It should be able to live out it's life there.

(not my pic)
(bird just below center of the pic)
_________________May we all get to have a chance to ride the fast one
Walk away wiser when we crashed one
Keep hoping that the best one is the last one